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EFL Professor in SL

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Hello, there! It's been a while since Pio's last post. She promises she will be sharing her experiences in virtual worlds again. This year we have several great events and many more adventures happening in Second Life, Kitely, Open Sim and other virtual worlds.

WE were invited by Rob Howard the founder of EFLtalks to participate in a really interesting project called EFLtalks 10 in 10 for terms. This project is about building a teacher's video glossary of day to day terminology that teachers and trainers use. EFLtalkers will be defining the terms as well as explaining why, where and where to use the concept in their teaching.

This time, we are sharing a post on the state of the art of my favorite virtual world: Second Life and how it's used to teach and learn a new language.
What are virtual worlds?
So, let's get started by defining what virtual worlds are. Berns et al (2013) define VWs as 3-D immersive persistent environments where users’ graphical representati…

9th Annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education will be held on March 9-12, 2016. This year's theme is Horizons.

The VWBPE Conference is a completely virtual conference that is conducted using simulated environments. Participants experience the conference through a virtual reality type setting including conference rooms, theatres, exposition halls, meeting spaces, and other types of venues similar to a brick and mortar type conference.

The conference is free to attend. The cost of the conference is covered by sponsorship and donations.

Well, we are back in track. This time Pio is participating in this wonderful adventure of teaching and learning in virtual worlds. EVO Sessions
For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.

Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. It is not necessary to be a TESOL member or attend the TESOL Convention in order to participate. All you need is access to the Internet and choose a session from this year's offerings, Here you can find a list of the sessions: EVO Sessions 2016

You’re invited to first Second Life MOOC of its kind on WizIQ on April 1. 2014. The theme of the MOOC is Learning and Connecting Online for Instruction and Learning using Second Life. (click here to acces the course).

The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.

Second Life MOOC will also include courses for beginners and advanced Second Life participants. The courses will be asynchronous (Moodle) and synchronous (WizIQ & Second Life) with recordings on WizIQ, Google Drive, YouTube, and Vimeo.

There will be three learning areas: WizIQ course area, Second Life, and Moodle for Teachers (M4T) Moodle website. The live online sessions and recordings, tutorials (courseware) and ongoing discussions (coursefeed) will be available in the WizIQ course area.

Well, we are back... VWBPE is back.. this year.. "Connections" is the word and spirit we'll be sharing- The conference is being held from April 9-12th, 2014 using three immersive environments including Second Life, OSGrid, and CloudParty.

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a global grass-roots community event which focuses on education in immersive virtual environments. This open conference is organized by educators, for educators, to provide an opportunity to showcase the learning that takes place in this community of practice.

Pio is really happy that Latin American universities are working to promote virtual worlds as tools to empower education. That's the case of the Proyecto de Mundos Virtuales - Second USMP of the San Martín de Porres Univeristy in Perú. The USMP has been in Second Life since 2008

The have recently started a series of 3d interviews that have as venue their campus in Second Life. San Martin de Porres University features a simulation of the beautiful Citadel of Machu Pichu the legendary Inca´s Village, one of the 7 new marvels of the world. The first interview topic explores Metaverses.. by asking the question .... Is a metaverse a video game?

Pio's friend Carmel Quinzet (Carmen Quintana de Solar) de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP) invited her for a little chat with her classmates. She wanted to know about Pio's work in Sl as an educator.
Since URBE EFL Center in SL is moving to a new place, probably to Edunation, soon. They improvised a sitting place at the PUCP sandbox. There, Pio rezzed some of her students poster on their latest project "My Face for Peace and Avatars for Peace". Carmel wanted to know how we integrated virtual worlds in our EFL class in a traditional face to face setting.

Pio told her that there were different things to consider before integrating Sl in her classes. We use Sl as any other tool, it's just a mean to introduce, model or present some skills or contents related to the syllabus in the class. Our classes are traditional face to face classes that integrate technology to enrich the educational experience. The philosophy behind this is that students shoul…